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Sanity and Self Care for Moms

My Weight Loss Plan: Week 4

Week 4 of my weight loss plan has come to a close and the results are in! As promised, I will be providing updates on my weight loss progress every 4 weeks for 16 weeks. If you haven’t already read my posts about this weight loss plan, click on the links below to catch up:

Where am I now?

After 4 weeks I am proud to say that I have lost 3 pounds and I am feeling like I lost 10! I am certain that I have gained some muscle based on my increase strength which means I most likely lost more than 3 pounds of actual fat. My guess would be that I gained a couple of pounds of muscle over the four-week period. When you see my before and after photos below, you will see why I feel like I lost more than three pounds. I must admit, I was slightly disappointed with the number on the scale until I saw these photos. If you were looking for a reason NOT to focus too much on the scale, there you have it!

Weeks 1-4: Challenges and Successes

My first weekend was rough. I definitely fell off the wagon with my Food Fundamentals and I paid for it. I felt tired, moody and anxious and I looked more bloated than before I started! The one positive outcome though was that I actually couldn’t wait to get back on track Monday morning. I wanted to feel good again. Once I got back into the swing of things I knew I didn’t want to have another weekend like that. The next weekend included a few minor indulgences but I kept mostly healthy meals and I felt just fine.

Then, another set back… my in-laws came to visit. With an Italian Mother-in-law and a Polish Father-in-law, food is kind of a big deal. I spent 5 days eating more carbs than I could handle. I did manage to sneak in some cardio on three of the days so I’m sure that helped a bit. After they left, my prior efforts seemed to have all been erased, but I got right back on track and, after a week or so of recovery it looks as though it didn’t set me back much, if at all!

Sidenote: It is perfectly normal and acceptable to have minor setbacks, especially when the changes you are making are meant to be long-term lifestyle goals. We aren’t perfect and we don’t need to be! The important thing is that, as soon as the interruption is gone, you get right back on track at full force. As I’ve mentioned before, I highly recommend downloading the My Fitness Pal app. It keeps me on track and shows me just how off course I am when life leads me astray. Continuing to put my calorie data into the app even when I was eating poorly kept me from over doing it, and reminded me that I wanted to get back to my goals as soon as possible.

Before and After

So let’s take a look at the side my side comparison. The photos on the left were taken at the beginning of my journey and those on the right at the 4 week mark.

How Do I Feel?

I feel absolutely fantastic!

They say it takes 4 weeks for you to see changes, 8 weeks for friends and family to see changes and 12 weeks for everyone else to see them. Personally, I think that I look drastically different and my husband says he has noticed a big difference as well. When I went to visit some family a couple of days after I took this photo no one seemed to notice but I’m hoping they will next time!

For those of you interested in following this plan with me, I am working on some printables for you. Let me know in the comments if there is anything in particular that you would find helpful.

Is anyone else out there making progress?? If you’re up for sharing, I would be happy to post some testimonial before and afters as well! Just let me know in the comments.